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COLUMBUS, 
RAMON PANE AND THE 
BEGINNINGS OF 

AMERICAN 
ANTHROPOLOGY 

By 

EDWAKD GATLOKD BOUKNE 
Professor of History in Yale University 



Reprinted from the Proceedings of the 
American Antiquarian Society 



WORCESTER 

1906 



Hi EXCHAKffi 




jul is m 



3 



COLUMBUS, RAMON PANE AND THE 
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 

BY EDWARD GAYLORD BOURNE. 

About three weeks hence on May 20th will be celebrated 
the 400th anniversary of the death of Columbus. Appar- 
ently little notice will be taken of this anniversary in the 
United States. To the American people at large the event 
of supreme interest in the career of the Admiral is, of course, 
the discovery of the New World, and the quadricentenary 
of that was celebrated with an elaboration which naturally 
precludes any considerable expenditure of effort and enthu- 
siasm within the same generation in commemoration of the 
death of the discoverer. Yet this anniversary should not 
pass unnoticed, least of all by a learned society devoted to 
the study of American antiquities, for Christopher Columbus 
not only revealed the field of our studies to the world but 
actually in person set on foot the first systematic study of 
American primitive custom, religion and folklore ever under- 
taken. He is in a sense therefore the founder of American 
Anthropology. This phase of the varied activities of the 
discoverer has received in our day little or no attention. 
To all appearances it is not even mentioned in Justin Winsor's 
six hundred page biography. Such neglect is owing in part 
to the discredit that has been cast upon the life of Columbus 
by his son Ferdinand in consequence of which its contents 
have not been studied with due critical appreciation. 

In Ferdinand's biography of his father, commonly referred 
to under the first word of the Italian title as the Historie, 
are imbedded not a few fragments of Columbus' own letters 



4 



and other documents not commonly reproduced in the selec- 
tions from his writings. To two such documents as present- 
ing the evidence of Columbus' interest and efforts in the 
field of American Anthropology I invite your attention 
this morning. 

The first contains the discoverer's own brief summary of 
what he was able to learn of the beliefs of the natives of 
Espanola during the period of his second voyage, 1493 — 96, 
and the record of his commissioning the Friar Ramon Pane 
who had learned the language of the islanders, " to collect all 
their ceremonies and antiquities." The second is Ramon's 
report of his observations and inquiries and is not only the 
first treatise ever written in the field of American Antiqui- 
ties, but to this day remains our most authentic record of 
the religion and folk-lore of the long since extinct Tainos, 
the aboriginal inhabitants of Hayti. 

The original Spanish text of these documents is no 
longer extant and, like the Historie which contains them, they 
are known to us in full only in the Italian translation of 
that work published in Venice in 1571 by Alfonso Ulloa. 

The observations of Columbus first referred to were 
recorded in his narrative of his second voyage which we 
possess only in the abridgments of Las Casas and Ferdinand 
Columbus. Both of these authors in condensing the original, 
incorporated passages in the exact words of the Admiral, 
and it is from such a passage in Ferdinand's abridgment 
that we derive the Admiral's account of the religion of 
primitive Hayti. Ferdinand writes: "Our people also 
learned many other things which seem to me worthy to be 
related in this our history. Beginning then with religion I 
will record here the very words of the Admiral who wrote 
as follows:" 

"I was able to discover neither idolatry nor any other sect among 
them, although all their kings, who are many, not only in Espanola but 
also in all the other islands and on the main land* each have a house 
apart from the village, in which there is nothing except some wooden 

*I. e. Cuba, which Columbus believed to be the main land. 



5 



images carved in relief which are called cemis* nor is there anything 
done in such a house for any other object or service except for these 
cemis, by means of a kind of ceremony and prayer which they go to 
make in it as we go to churches. In this house they have a finely wrought 
table, round like a wooden dish in which is some powder which is placed 
by them on the heads of these cemis in performing a certain ceremony; 
then with a cane that has two branches which they place in their nos- 
trils they snuff up this dust. The words that they say none of our people 
understand. With this powder they lose consciousness and become 
like drunken men. 

They give a name to this figure, and I believe it is that of a father, 
grandfather or of both, since they have more than one such, and some 
more than ten, all in memory, as I have said, of some one of their ances- 
tors. I have heard them praise one more than another, and have seen 
them show it more devotion and do more reverence to one than another 
as we do in processions where there is need. 

Both the Caciques and the peoples boast to each other of having 
the best cemis. When they go to these cemis of theirs and enter the house 
where he is they are on their guard with respect to the Christians and 
do not suffer them to enter it. On the contrary, if they suspect they 
are coming, they take the cemi or the cemis away and hide them in the 
woods for fear they may be taken from them; and what is more laugh- 
able they have the custom of stealing each other's cemis. It happened 
once, when they suspected us, that the Christians entered the said 
house with them and of a sudden the cemi gave a loud cry and spoke 
in their language from which it was discovered that it was artfully con- 
structed because being hollow, they had fitted to the lower part a trum- 
pet or tube which extended to a dark part of the house covered 'with 
leaves and branches where there was a person who spoke what the 
Cacique wanted him to say so far as it could be done with a tube. Where- 
upon our men having suspected what might be the case, kicked the 
cemi over and found the facts as I have just described. When the 
Cacique saw that it was discovered by our men he besought them urg- 
ently not to say anything to the Indians, his subjects, nor to others 
because by this deceit he kept them in obedience. 

This then we can say, there is some semblance of idolatry, at least 
among those who do not know the secret and the deception of their 
Caciques because they believe that the one who speaks is the cemi. In 
general all the people are deceived and the Cacique alone is the one 
who is conscious of and promotes their false belief by means of which 
he draws from his people all those tributes as seems good to him. Like- 
wise most of the Caciques have three stones to which they and their 

*Ulloa in his Italian gives this word in various forms e. g. cemi, cimi, cimini and 
cimiche. The correct form is cemi with the accent on the last syllable. Las Casas 
says, "Estas — llamaban cemi, la ultima silaba luenga y aguda." Docs. Ineditos para 
la Historia de Espana, LXVI, 436. J. Walter Fewkes published an 

article with illustrations "On Zemes from Santo Domingo" in the American Anthro- 
polgist, IV, 167-175. 



6 



peoples pay great reverence. One they say helps the corn and the vege- 
tables that are planted; another the child-bearing of women without 
pain; and the third helps by means of water (i. e. rain) and the sun 
when they have need of it. I sent three of these stones to your Highness 
by Antonio de Torres* and another set of three I have to bring with me. 

When these Indians die they have the funerals in different ways. 
The way the Caciques are buried, is as follows. They open the Cacique 
and dry him by the fire in order that he may be preserved whole, (or, 
entirely). Of others they take only the head. Others are buried in 
a cave and they place above their head a gourd of water and some bread. 
Others they burn in the house where they die and when they see them 
on the point of death they do not let them finish their life but strangle 
them. This is done to the Caciques. Others they drive out of the house; 
and others they put into a hamaca, which is their bed of netting, and 
put water and bread at their head and leave them alone without return- 
ing to see them any more. Some again that are seriously ill they take 
to the Cacique and he tells them whether they ought to be strangled or 
not and they do what he commands. 

I have taken pains to learn what they believe and if they know where 
they go after death; especially from Caunabo, who is the chief king 
in Espanola, a man of years, of great knowledge and very keen mind; 
and he and others replied that they go to a certain valley which every 
principal Cacique believes is situated in his own country, affirming 
that there they find their father and all their ancestors; and that they 
eat and have women and give themselves to pleasures and recreation 
as is more fully contained in the following account in which I ordered 
one Friar Roman (Ramon) who knew their language to collect all their 
ceremonies and their antiquities although so much of it is fable that 
one cannot extract anything fruitful from it beyond the fact that each 
one of them has a certain natural regard for the future and believes in 
the immortality of our souls, "f 

Then follows in Ferdinand's biography a transcript of 
this "Account by Friar Roman (Ramon) of the Antiquities 
of the Indians which he as one who knows their language 
diligently collected by command of the Admiral." Before 
describing Friar Ramon's work I will present what little 
information in regard to him that I have been able to find. 

The historian Las Casas knew Ramon Pane and tells 
us in his Apologetica Historia that he came to Espanola at 
the beginning with the Admiral J which must mean on the 

♦Antonio de Torres set forth on the return voyage here referred to February 2, 1494. 
tHistorie. Ed. 1571, folios 125-126. 

JLas Casas. Apologetica Historia. Docs. Ine"d. para la Hist, de Espana, LXVI 
435-36. 



7 



second voyage in 1493 as there were no clergy on the first 
voyage. Later he says he came five years before he him- 
self did which would be in 1497 * This second statement is 
erroneous for Columbus, as has just been seen, reports the 
result of his labors in his own account of his second voyage 
which he drew up in 1496. Las Casas also says that Ramon 
was a Catalan by birth and did not speak Castilian perfectly 
and that he was a simple-minded man so that what he j 
reported was sometimes confused and of little substance. t 
The Admiral sent him first into the province of lower Maco- 
rix' whose language he knew and then later, because this 
language was spoken only in a small territory, to the Vega 
and the region where King Guarionex bore sway where he 
could accomplish much more because the population was 
greater and the language diffused throughout the island. 
He remained there two years and did what he could accord- 
ing to his slender abilities.! 

To Peter Martyr who read and abstracted his treatise, 
he is merely "One Ramon a hermit whom Colon had left 
with certain kings of the island to instruct them in the 
Christian faith. And tarrying there a long time he com- 
posed a small book in the Spanish tongue on the rites of 
the islands." § 

These few references are all the contemporary information 
to be derived about Ramon Pane outside of his own narrative. 
This little work which I have called the pioneer treatise in 
American Antiquities has come down to us as a whole, as 
I have said, only in the Italian translation of Ferdinand 
Columbus's life of the Admiral. By one of the mishaps of 
fate the translator transformed the author's name from 
Ramon Pane into Roman Pane, and under that disguise he 
appears in most modern works in which he appears at all. 
But the testimony of Las Casas who knew him and of Peter 

*Las Casas op. cit. 473. 
fLas Casas, op. cit. 475. 
Jlbid. 436. 

§Peter Martyr. De Rebus Oceanicis. ed. 1574, p. 102. : - 



8 



Martyr who used his work in Spanish is conclusive that his 
name was Ramon. Ramon, too, is a common Catalan 
name. Such few writers on early American religion and 
folk-lore as use his work directly resort either to the Italian 
text or some of the translations or to Peter Martyr's epitome 
in the 9th book of the first of his decades of the Ocean. 
Few, if any, make a critical comparison of these two forms 
of his work and none so far as I know have supplemented 
such a comparison with such of the material in Las Casas's 
Apologetica Historia as was derived from Ramon's work in 
the original. 

The interest and importance of the subject justify it 
seems to me a critical study of Friar Ramon's work as the 
earliest detailed account of the legends and religious beliefs 
and practices of the long since extinct natives of Hayti. 
The range of its contents is considerable. It contains a 
cosmogony, a creation legend, an Amazon legend, a legend 
which offers interesting evidence that syphilis was an indi- 
genous and ancient disease in America at the time of its 
discovery, a flood and ocean legend, a tobacco legend, a 
sun and moon legend, a long account of the Haytian medicine 
men, an account of the making of their cemis or fetishes, of 
the ritualistic use of tobacco, a current native prophecy of 
the appearance in the island of a race of clothed people 
and lastly a brief report of the earliest conversions to Chris- 
tianity in the island and of the first native martyrs. 

To facilitate a study of this material in its earliest record 
I have translated Ramon's treatise from the Italian, 
excerpted and collated with it the epitomes of Peter Martyr 
and Las Casas and have prepared brief notes, the whole 
to form so far as may be a critical working text of this source 
for the folklorist and student of Comparative Religion in 
America. The proper names in each case are given as in 
the 1571 edition of the Historie. Later editions of the Italian 
and the English version to be found in Churchill's Voyages 
(vol. II.) and Pinkerton's Voyages (Vol. XII) give divergent 



9 



forms. At best the spelling of these names offers much 
perplexity. Ramon wrote down in Spanish the sounds he 
heard, Ferdinand, unfamiliar with the sounds, copied the 
names and then still later Ulloa equally unfamiliar with 
the originals copied them into his Italian. In such a process 
there was inevitably some confusion of u and n and of u 
and v, (Spanish b.) In the Italian text v is never used, 
it is always u. In not a few cases the Latin of Peter Martyr 
and the Spanish of Las Casas give us forms much nearer 
those used by Ramon than the Italian. 



LIST OF MODERN WORKS DEALING DIRECTLY 
WITH THE TREATISE OF RAMON PANE OR 
PARTICULARLY SERVICEABLE IN THE 
STUDY OF IT. 

Bachiller y Morales, Antonio. Cuba Primitiva: Origen, Lenguas, 
Tradiciones e Historia de los Indios de las Antillas Mayores y las Lucayas. 
2nd. Ed. Habana, 1883. The fullest study of the subject with full 
vocabularies of extant aboriginal wor4s and a dictionary of historical 
names and traditions. Contains also a translation of the part 
of Ramon Pane's treatise that relates to primitive religion and 
folklore. 

Bastian, Adolf. Die Culturlander des Alten America. 2 vols. 
Berlin, 1878. The second vol. with the sub-title, Beitrage zu Geschicht- 
lichen Vorarbeiten auf Westlicher Hemisphare, devotes a chapter, pp. 
285-314 to the Antilles. It consists of rough notes assembled from 
Ramon Pane and Peter Martyr and other writers relating to the religion 
and folklore of the aborigines of the Antilles. 

Bloch, Dr. Iwan. Der Ursprung der Syphilis. Eine medizinische 
und Kulturgeschichtiche Untersuchung. Erste Abteilung, Jena, 1901. 
An elaborate critical and historical study which definitely establishes 
the American origin of Syphilis. The evidence from Ramon Pane is 
discussed on pp. 201-204. 

Douay, Leon. Affinites lexicologiques du Haitien et du Maya. 
Congres International des Am6ricanistes. Compte Rendu de la 10 6me 
session. Stockholm 1897, pp. 193-206. Reproduces in parallel columns 
with the corresponding Maya words the Haytian vocabulary compiled 
by the Abbe" Brasseur de Bourbourg. 



10 



/ / 

Douay, Leon. Etudes Etymologiques sur L'Antiquite" Am6ricaine. 
Paris, 1891. Etymological interpretation of proper names in Hayti 
and the non-Carib Antilles, pp. 26-30. 

Ehrenreich, Paul. Die Mythen und Legenden der Siidamerikanis- 
chen Urvolker und ihre Beziehungen zu denen Nordamerikas und der 
alten Welt. Berlin 1895. Supplement zu Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 
1905. The author of this very valuable introduction to the comparative 
study of American Mythology has used Ramon Pane only in Peter 
Martyr's abstract. 

Gilij, Filippo Salv adore. Saggio di Storia Americana o sia storia 
Natural, Civile, e sacra de regni e delle provincie Spagnuole di Terra- 
ferma nelT America Meridionale. Roma MDCCLXXXII, 3 Vols. In 
vol. 3, pp. 220-228 is a vocabulary of the Haytian language compiled 
from Oviedo, Peter Martyr (Ramon Pane) Acosta and other writers. 
This vocabulary is sometimes reproduced by later writers with revisions. 

Lollis, Cesare de, ed. Raccolta di Documenti e Studi. Pub. 
dalla R. Commissione Colombiana, etc. Roma, 1892. Parte I, vol. 1, 
213-223 contains text of Ulloa's Italian translation of Ramon Pane 
with an apparatus criticus. 

Martius,Dr. Carl F. Ph. v. Beitrage zur Ethnographie und Sprach- 
enkunde Amerika's zumal Brasiliens. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1867. Vol. 
II, pp. 314-18, contains a Latin-Taino vocabulary based chiefly on 
Rafinesque's collections. 

Montejo y Robledo, Dr. Bonifacio. Procedencia Americana de 
las Bubas. Actas del Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, 4 a Reunion. 
Madrid, 1881, pp. 334-419. Evidence from Ramon Pane discussed pp. 
358, 360. 

Mueller, J. G. Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, Basel, 
1855. pp. 155-185 are devoted to the religion of the non-Carib aborigines 
of the West Indies. 

Peschel, Oscar. Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, 2** 
Aufl. Stuttgart, 1877. On pp. 147-48 the cosmogony of the Haytians 
is briefly described. 

Rafinesque, C. S. The American Nations; or Outlines of their 
General History, Ancient and Modern, etc., etc. Philadelphia, 1836, 
pp. 162-260. Interesting linguistic material with much highly fantastic 
conjecture. 



11 



TREATISE OF FRIAR RAMON* ON THE ANTIQUI- 
TIES OF THE INDIANS WHICH HE AS ONE 
WHO KNOWS THEIR LANGUAGE DILIGENTLY 
COLLECTED BY COMMAND OF THE ADMIRAL. 

I Friar Ramon a poor Hermit of the Order of St. Jerome 
by command of the illustrious lord, the Admiral and 
Viceroy and governor of the Islands and of the main land 
of the Indies, write this which I have been able to learn 
and to know of the belief and idolatry of the Indians and 
how they worship their gods. Of which matters I shall 
give an account in the present treatise. 

Each one in praying to the idols which he has in his 
house, and which are called by them cemist worships in 
his own fashion and superstition. 

They hold that he is (as) in heaven immortal and that 
no one can see him, and that he has a mother and that he 
had no beginning, and this [god] they call Iocahuuague 
Maorocon,J and his mother they call Atabei, Iermaoguacar, 
Apito and Zuimaco which are five names. § Those of whom 

♦The correct form of the name has been substituted for the common form Roman. 

fCemini is the form used in the text and may have been invented by Ulloa as an 
Italian plural. Las Casas writes: "These they generally call Cemi the last syllable 
long with the acute accent" Docs. In€d. de Espana. LXVI, 436. 

JLas Casas, op. ext. 434, gives the name Yocahu Vagua Maorocoti. It differs only in 
the last syllable from the Italian text which may be rewritten as Jocahu vague Maor- 
ocon. Peter Martyr has Iocauna Guamaonocon. This has been accepted by modern 
writers as the correct form e. g. Bachiller of Morales. Cuba Primitiva, 167 and L6on. 
Douay, Etudes Etymologiques, 27. As Las Casas lived many years in Espanola r 
his authority should be carefully considered. Las Casas, 035. cit. p. 475 mentions a 
Cemi whose name was Yocahuguama. 

§Peter Martyr gives the five names as Attabeira, Mamona, Guacarapita, Iiella and 
Guimazoa. The Italian text of Ramon is here apparently corrupt as it gives only 
four names and calls them five, Iiella is omitted from the list and the first three of 
the names is given by Peter Martyr, Attabeira, Mamona, Guacaripita appear as 
Attabei, Iermaoguacar, Apito. Apparently in Ramon's MS. the second name was very 
illegible. By dividing the names differently we see that the trouble mainly lies there. 
Attabeira, Mamdna, Gucaripita, 

ra I mamdna] 
Attabei, Ier| mao | guacar, Apito, 

Las Casas read it. "Atabex y un hermano Guaca" conjecturing that what Ulloa 
copied as Iermao was hermano, "brother." The whole passage is "The people of this 
island of Espanola had an assured faith and knowledge of one true and only God 
who was immortal and invisible, whom no one can see, who had no beginning, 



12 



I write this are of the island Espanola; because of the other 
islands I know nothing never having seen them. Like- 
wise they know from what direction they came and whence 
the sun had his origin and the moon and how the sea was 
made and whither the dead go. And they believe that 
the dead appear on the roadways when one goes alone, 
wherefore when many go together they do not appear to 
them. All this those who have gone before have made 
them believe, because these people know not how to read 
or to count beyond ten. 

CHAPTER I. 

From what direction the Indians have come and in what 
manner. 

Espanola has a province called Caanau* in which there is a mountain 
which is called Cantaf where there are two caves, the one named Caciba- 
giagua and the other Amaiuua.J From Cacibagiagua came forth the 
larger part of the people who settled in the island. When people were 
in these caves watch was kept by night and the care of this was given 
to one whose name was Marocael;§ and him, because one day he delayed 
to come back to the door, the sun carried off. And when it was 
seen that the sun had carried him off they closed the door; and so 
he was changed into stone near the door. Next they say that others 
going off to fish were taken by the sun and they became trees, called by 
them IobiJ and otherwise they are called mirabolans. The reason 
why Marocael kept watch and stood guard was to watch in what direction 
he wished to send or to divide the people, and it seems that he delayed 
to his own greater hurt. 



whose dwelling place and habitation is heaven, and they named him Yocahu Vagua 
Maorocoti. . . . With this true and catholic knowledge of the true God they 
mingled these errors to wit, that God had a mother and her brother Guaca and 
others of this sort." Docs. Ined. LXVI. 434. 

*Caunana in Peter Martyr. 

fCauta in Peter Martyr, and the correct form. 

JCazibaxagua and Amaiauna in Peter Martyr who says in Decade vii, chap 8, 
that in the ancestral lore of the Haytians the island was viewed as a great monster 
of the female sex and that the great cave of Guaccaiarima was her organs of genera- 
tion — Cf. Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, 147 and Ehrenreich, Die My then und 
Legenden der Sudamerikanischen Urvolker, 33. 

§Machochael in Peter Martyr. This is apparently the correct form. Cf. Bachiller 
y Morales, 315. 

||Iobo (Jobo, or hobo). The name of this tree and fruit is still in use in Santo 
Domingo, Bachiller y Morales, 300. 



13 



CHAPTER II. 

How the men were divided from the women. 

It came to pass that one man whose name was Guagugiona* said to 
another whose name was Giadruuaua,t that he should go to gather 
an herb called digo with which they cleanse the body when they go to 
wash themselves. He went before day, (but) the sun seized him on the 
way and he became a bird which sings in the morning like the nightin- 
gale and is called Giahuba Bagiael. Guagugiona seeing that he whom 
he had sent to gather the digo did not return resolved to go out of the 
cave Cacibagiagua. 

CHAPTER III. 

That Guagugiona resolved to go away in anger, seeing that those 
whom he had sent to gather the digo for washing themselves did not 
return; and he said to the women "Leave your husbands and let us go 
into other lands and we will carry off enough jewels. Leave your sons 
and we will carry only the plants with us and then we will return for 
them." 

CHAPTER IV. 

Guagugiona set forth with all the women and went off in search of 
other lands, and came to MatininoJ where he left the women; and he 
went away into another region called Guanin and they had left the little 
children near a brook. Then when hunger began to trouble them, it 
is related, that they wailed and called upon their mothers who had gone 
off; and the fathers were not able to give help to the children calling 
in hunger for their mothers, saying "mama" as if to speak, but really 
asking for the breast. § And wailing in this fashion and asking for the 
breast, saying "too, too,"|| as one who asks for something with great 
longing, and very urgently, they were changed into little animals, 



*Vaguoniona in Peter Martyr. Bachiller y Morales, thinks the proper form is Gua- 
goniona. See his discussion of this and the two following names, Cuba Primitiva, 275 . 
tThis name is omitted in Peter Martyr. 

JUsually identified with Martinique. This passage is convincing evidence that 
the Amazon legends in America were indigenous and not transmitted there or deve- 
loped by the misapprehensions of the first discoverers. Ehrenreich is convinced 
that these legends are indigenous although he does not refer to this evidence. See 
his Mythen und Legenden, 65. Columbus early and frequently heard of the island of 
Matinino which was inhabited only by women. 

§La tetta, Apparently the Italian text used by the translator of the English version 
of the Historie read "la terra" in this passage for it is there rendered "to beg of the 
earth"! 

||Toa, toa, in Peter Martyr. 



14 



after the fashion of dwarfs* (frogs) which are called Tonaf because of 
their asking for the breast, and that in this way all the men were left 
without women. 

CHAPTER V. 

And later on another occasion women went there from the said Island 
Espafiola, which formerly was called Aiti, and is so called by its inhabi- 
tants; and these and other islands they called Bouhi.J And because 
they have no writing nor letters they cannot give a good account of what 
they have learned from their forbears; and therefore they do not agree in 
what they say, nor can what they relate be recorded in an orderly fashion. 

When Guahagiona went away, he that carried away all the women, 
he likewise took with him the women of his Cacique whose name was 
Anacacugia, deceiving him as he deceived the others; and, moreover, 
a brother-in-law of Guahagiona Anacacuia, § who went off with him went 
on the sea; and Guahagiona said to his brother-in-law, being in the canoe, 
see what a fine cobo is there in the water and this cobo is the sea snail, and 
him peering into the water to see the cobo Guahagiona his brother-in-law 
seized by the feet and cast into the sea; and so he took all the women 
for himself, and he left those of Matinino (i. e. at Matinino) where it is 
reported there are no people but women to-day. And he went off to 
another island which is called Guanin|| and it received this name on 
account of what he took away from it when he went away. 

CHAPTER VI. 

That Guahagiona returned to Canta, (Cauta) mentioned above, 
whence he had taken the women. They say that being in the land 
whence he had gone Guahagiona saw that he had left in the sea one woman, 
and that he was greatly pleased with her and straightway sought out 
many washes (or washing places) to wash himself being full of those 
sores which we call the French disease. IF She then put him in a Guanara 

*Nane. The correct reading is rane, "frogs," as appears in Peter Martyr and from 
the context. 

fUlloa's misreading rane as nane may have misled him in the latter part of the 
sentence. The version in Peter Martyr makes much better sense. Bachiller y 
Morales, questions the existence of such a word as Tona, p. 343. Brasseur de Bour- 
bourg conjectured that Toa may have meant "frog" as well as "breast." 

JApparently in the sense of homes or dwelling places. Buhi or Bohio ordinarily 
means cabin. 

§The punctuation follows the text of the original. Perhaps it should be 
Guahagiona, Anacacuia, making the second name that of the brother-in-law. 
\\Guamn means an inferior kind of gold. 

ITThat Ramon Pane, before 1496, should have recorded this legend of the culture 
hero Guahagiona (Guagugiona, Vaguoniona) is conclusive evidence that Syphilis had 
existed in the West Indies long before the arrival of the Spaniards — Cf. Iwan Bloch 
Der Ursprung der Syphilis, 202-205. The name mal Francese is no doubt Ulloa's 
translation of las bubas, the Spanish name of the disease. 



15 



which means a place apart; and so he was healed of these sores. Then 
she asked permission of him to go on her way and he gave it to her. 
This woman was named Guabonito; and Guahagiona changed his name 
and thenceforward he was called Biberoci Guahagiona. And the woman 
Guabonito gave Biberoci Guahagiona many guanins* and many cibef 
to wear tied on his arms. Because in those countries colecibi% are of 
stones like marble and they wear them tied on the arms and on the neck 
and the guanins they wear in the ears making holes when they are 
children; and they are of metal as it were of a florin. And the beginnings 
(the originators) of these guanins they say were Guabonito, Albeborael, 
Guahagiona, and the father of Albeborael. Guahagiona remained in 
the land with his father whose name was Hiauna, his grandson (figliuolo) 
on his father's side (i. e. Guahagiona 's son) was named Hia Guaili Guanin 
which means grandson of Hiauna; and thence thereafter he was called 
Guanin and is so called to-day. And since they have no letters nor 
writings they cannot relate well such fables nor can I write them well. 
Wherefore I believe I shall put down first what should be last and last 
what should be first. But all that I write is related by them as I write 
it and so I set it forth as I have understood it from the people of the 
country. 

CHAPTER VII. 

How there were women again in the island of Aiti which 
is now called Espanola. 

They say that one day the men went off to bathe and being in the water, 
it rained heavily, and that they were very desirous of having women, 
and that oftentimes when it rained, they had gone to search for the 
traces of their women nor had been able to find any news of them, but 
that on that day while bathing, they say, they saw fall down from some 
trees and hiding in the branches a certain kind of persons that were not 
men nor women nor had the natural parts of the male or female. They 
went to take them but they fled away as if they had been eagles, § (eels) 
wherefore they called two or three men by the order of their cacique, 
since they were not able to take them for him in order that they might 
watch to see how many there were and that they might seek out for 
each one a man who was Caracaracol because they have their hands 
rough, and that so they held (could hold) them tightly. They told 
the Cacique that there were four, and so they brought four men who 
were Caracaracoli. This Caracaracol is a disease like scab which makes 
the body very rough. After they had caught them they took counsel 

♦Jewels of guanin. 
tBeads. 

^Strings of beads. Bacbiller y Morales, 251. 

§Aquile. Read anguille, "eels." A mistake of the translator Ulloa. Peter 
Martyr has anguillae which is undoubtedly the right word. 



16 



together over them what they could do to make them women since 
they did not have the natural parts of male or female. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
How they found a device to make them women. 

They sought a bird which is called Inriri, in ancient times Inrire Cahu- 
uaial, which bores trees and in our language is called woodpecker (pico). 
And likewise they took these women without male or female organs 
and bound their feet and hands and took this bird just mentioned and 
bound him to the body and he thinking that they were logs began to do 
his accustomed task pecking and boring in the place where the natural 
parts of women are wont to be. In this fashion, then, the Indians say 
that they had women according to what the oldest men relate.* Since 
I wrote in haste and did not have paper enough I could not put down 
in its place that which by mistake I transferred to another place, but 
notwithstanding that I have in reality made no mistake since they 
believe it all as has been written. 

Let us turn now to that which we should have recorded first, i. e.their 
belief as to the origin and beginning of the sea. 

CHAPTER IX. 
How they say the sea was made. 

There was a man called Giaiaf whose name they do not know and his 
son called Giaiael which means son of Giaia. This Giaiael wishing to 
slay his father, he sent him into exile where he remained banished four 
months, and then his father slew him and put his bones in a gourd and 
fastened it on the roof of his cabin where it remained fastened some 
time. And it came to pass that one day Giaia, longing to see his son, 
said to his wife, "I want to see our son Giaiel; and she was pleased at 
that; and he took down the gourd and turned it over to see the bones 
of his son, and from it came forth many fishes large and small. Where- 
fore, seeing that the bones were changed into fishes they resolved to eat 
them. One day, therefore, they say that Giaia having gone to his 
ConichiX, which means his lands that were his inheritance there came 
four sons of a woman whose name was Itiba Tahuuaua, all from one 
womb and twins; and this woman having died in travail they opened 
her and drew out these for sons, and the first that they drew out was 
Caracaracol which means scabby. This Caracaracol had the name 
§. The others had no name. 



*Cf. Ehrenreich, Mythen und Legenden, 56 for some analogous legends, 
flaia in Peter Martyr. 

JUsed by Ulloa as an Italian plural of the Haytian canuco, garden plot or farm. 
§Dimiuan is apparently the name omitted; see next chapter. 



/ 



17 



CHAPTER X. 

When the four sons, all born together, of Itiba Tahuuaua who died 
in travail with them, went to lay hold of the gourd of Giaia where his 
son Agiael* was who was changed into a fish; and none of them ventured 
to lay hands on it except Dimiuan Caracaracol who took it from its 
place and all satisfied themselves with fish; and while they were eating 
they perceived that Giaia was coming from his farms, and wishing, 
in this haste to fasten the gourd to its place again they did not fasten 
it well and so it fell to the ground and broke. They say that 
so great was the mass of water that came out of the gourd that 
it filled the whole earth, and with it issued many fish, and from 
this according to their account the sea had its beginning. These 
then departed from thence and found a man whose name was Conel 
and he was dumb. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Of the things which befel the four brothers when they 
fled from Giaia. 

Now these (brothers) as soon as they came to the door of Bassamanaco 
and perceived that he carried Cazzabi, f said, "Ahiacauo Guarocoel" 
which means "let us know this our grandfather." In like manner, 
Demiuan Caracaracol seeing his brothers before him went within to 
see if he could have some Cazzabi. And this Cazzabi is the bread that 
is eaten in the country. Caracaracol having entered the house of Aiam- 
auacoj asked him for Cazzabi which is the bread above mentioned; 
and he put his hand on his own nose and threw at him a guanguaio § 
hitting him in the back. This guanguaio was full of cogioba|| which 
he had had made that day; the cogioba is a certain powder which they 
take sometimes to purge themselves, and for other effects which you 
will hear of later. They take it with a cane about a foot long and put 
one end in the nose and the other in the powder, and in this manner 
they draw it into themselves through the nose and this purges them 
thoroughly. And thus he gave him that guanguaio for bread, . . IT 
and went off much enraged because they asked him for it. 

♦Giaiael. 
tCassava. 

JThis name seems to be compounded of part of Bassamanaco and Ahiacauo. 
Bachiller y Morales in his version substitutes the latter for it in the form 
Ayacauo. 

§Defined by Brasseur de Bourbourg, as a bag for holding tobacco. 

HTobacco. Las Casas uses the form Cohoba. On the various native words for 
tobacco see a valuable art, by Dr. A Ernst. On the Etymology of the word Tobacco. 
The American Anthropologist, II, 133-141 (1889). 

TT"E Cirtose pan." These words I have not been able to explain. 



18 



Caracaracol after this returned to his brothers and told them what 
had happened to him with Baiamanicoel* and of the blow that he hit 
him with the guanguaio on one shoulder and that it pained him very 
much. Then his brothers looked at his shoulder and saw that it was 
much swollen. And this swelling increased so much that he was like 
to die of it. Wherefore they tried to cut it and could not; and taking 
a stone axe they opened it and there came out a live turtle, a female; 
and so they built their cabin and cared for the turtle. Of this I have 
not heard (or understood) anything else, and what we have written was 
of little profit. And further they say that the sun and the moon came 
out of a cave which is situated in the country of a cacique named Maucia 
Tiuueif and the name of the cave is GiououauaJ and they hold it in 
high regard, and it is all painted in their fashion without any figure, 
with many leaves and other things of that sort, and in this cave there 
are two cemis, of stone, small about a foot high with their hands tied, 
and they looked as if they sweated. These cemis they hold in great 
regard, and when it did not rain they say they went there to visit them 
and suddenly it rained. And one of these cemis is called by them 
Boinaiel§ and the other Maroio. || 

CHAPTER XII. 

What they think as to how the dead go wandering about 
and as to what manner of folk they are and what they do. 

They believe that there is a place whither the dead go which is called 
Coaibai and lies in a part of the island called Soraia.^f The first man 
that was in Coaibai was, they relate, one whose name was Machetaurie- 
Guaiaua, who was the lord of this Coaibai, the home and dwelling place 
of the dead. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Of the shape which they say the dead are. 

They say that during the day they are shut in, and by night they go 
out to walk; and they eat of a certain fruit which is called guabazza** 
which has the flavor of (the Quince) ft That by day they are .... 



♦Still another variant of the name Bassa-Manaco. 

tMachinnech in Peter Martyr. Bachiller y Morales thinks the form in the text 
should be Manaia Tiunel. 

Jlouanaboina in Peter Martyr. 

§Binthaitel in Peter Martyr. 

||Marohu in Peter Martyr. 

ITSoraia means "west", Bachiller y Morales. 

**Guannaba in Peter Martyr and apparently the correct form. Bachiller y Morales 
identifies it with the fruit called Guanabana. 

ttThe gap in the Italian text has been supplied from Peter Martyr. 



19 



and at night they are changed into fruit,* and they have feasts and go 
with the living, and to know them they follow this practice, they touch 
their belly and if they do not find the navel they say that he is operito 
which means dead. Because they say the dead have no navel. And 
so sometimes they are deceived when they do not give heed to this; 
and they lie with some woman from Comboi, (Coaibai)f and when 
they think they have them in their arms, they have nothing because 
they disappear in a trice. This belief they hold in this matter to the 
present day. If the person is alive they call the spirit Goeiz, and after 
death they call (it) Opia. The Goeiz they say appears often both in 
the form of a man and in the form of a woman. And they say that 
there was a man that wished to contend with it, and that clinching it, 
it disappeared, and that the man thrust out his arms in another direction 
over some trees to which he hung. And this they all believe both small 
and great and that it appears to them in the form of father or mother, 
or brothers or parents and in other forms. The fruit which they say 
the dead eat is of the size of a quince. 

These dead do not appear to them in the day time, but always by 
night, and therefore with much fear do they venture to go forth alone 
at night. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Whence they derive this and who keeps it in such credit. 

There are some men who practise among them and are called Bohuti,J 
and these go through many deceits as we shall relate further, to make 
them believe that they talk with those (spirits) and that they know 
everything that is done and their secrets; and that when they are ill 
they take away the evil; and thus they deceive them, because I have 
seen part of it with my own eyes, although of the other things I will 
relate only what I have heard from many especially from the principal 
men with whom I have had to do more than with others; because these 
believe such fables more firmly than the others; because like the Moors 
they have their laws reduced to ancient songs ;§ by which they are 
ruled as the Moors are by their scripture. And when they wish to sing 
these songs of theirs, they play upon a certain instrument which is called 
maiohauau,\\ which is of wood and hollow, strongly made and very 
thin, an ell long and a half an ell in breadth, and the part where it is 
played is made in the shape of the pincers of a farrier, and the other 

♦The repetition here of the first sentence with a variation altogether irreconcilable 
with the context shows that the text is corrupt. 
fBachiller y Morales thus corrects the text. 

JBoitius in Peter Martyr and bohique and behique in Las Casas, see Docs. Inecl. 
LXVI. 436. 438. 

§Oviedo gives an account of these areytos as they were called. 

HBrasseur de Bourbourg gives this word as Maiouauan and defines it as a sort, of 
drum. 



20 



part is like a club. It looks like a gourd with a long neck; and they 
play this instrument, which has so loud a sound that it is heard a league 
and a half. To this sound they sing the songs which they learn by heart; 
and the principal men play it who have learned from childhood to sound 
it and to sing by it according to their custom. Let us now pass on to treat 
of many things relating to other ceremonies and customs of these heathen. 

CHAPTER XV. 

The observances of these Indian Buhuitihu, (Bohuti) 
and how they practice medicine and teach the people and 
in their cures they are oftentimes themselves taken in. 

AH or the majority of the people of the island of Espanola have many 
cemis of different kinds. One has the bones«of his father and his mother, 
and kindred and ancestors; (and there are others) which are made of 
stone or of wood. And many have them of both kinds; some (those) 
which speak; and others (those) which make the things grow which 
they eat; and others which bring rain; and others which make the winds 
blow. These simple-minded ignorant people believe these idols, or to 
speak more fittingly these devils, do these things not having knowledge 
of our holy faith. When one is ill they bring the Buhuitihu (Bohuti) 
to him as a physician. The physician is obliged to abstain from food 
like the sick man himself and to play the part of sick man which is done in 
this way which you will now hear. He must needs purge himself like 
the sick man and to purge himself he takes a certain powder called cohoba* 
snuffing it up his nose which intoxicates them so that they do not 
know what they do and in this condition they speak many things inco- 
herently in which they say they are talking with the cemis and that 
by them they are informed how the sickness came upon him. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
What these Buhuitihu, (Bohuti) do. 

When they go to visit a sick man before they set out from their cabins 
they take some soot from pots or pounded charcoal and blacken the face 
to make the sick man believe what seems good to them as to his ailment; 
and then they take some small bones and a little flesh and wrapping it 
all together in something so that it won't drop, put it in the mouth, 
the sick man having been already purged with the powder as we have 
said. The physician then goes into the cabin of the sick man and sits 
down and all are silent; and if there are children there, they put them 
out in order that they may not hinder the Buhuitihu (Bohuti) in his 
duties; nor does any one remain in the cabin except one or two of the 
principal men. 

*Tobacco. 



21 



And thus being alone they take some herbs of the Gioia* . i 
broad and another herb wrapped in a leaf of an onion half a quarter 
long; and one of the above-mentioned Gioia is what they all usually 
take. And crumbling it with their hands they make a paste of it and 
then put it in their mouths by night to make them vomit what they 
have eaten, in order that it may not hurt them; and then they begin to 
sing the above-mentioned song. And lighting a torch they take that 
juice. This done at the beginning, and waiting somewhat the Buhuitihu 
(Bohuti) rises and goes toward the sick man who is seated in the middle 
of his cabin as has been said and turns him around twice as he pleases. 
Then he stands before him and takes him by the legs feeling his thighs 
and running his hands down to his feet, then he draws him hard as if 
he wished to pull something off; then he goes to the entrance of the 
cabin and closes the door, and speaks saying "Begone to the mountains, 
or to the sea or whither thou wilt,' ; and blowing like one who blows 
in winnowing he turns around again and puts his hands together 
and closes his mouth and his hand shake as if he were very cold, and he 
blows on his hands and then draws in his breath again like one who is 
sucking the marrow from a bone and he sucks the sick man on the neck, 
on the stomach, shoulders, jaws, breasts, belly and many other parts 
of the body. This done they begin to cough and to make faces as if 
they had eaten something bitter, and he spits into his hand and draws 
out that which we mentioned which he had put in his mouth either at 
his own cabin or on the way, either a stone or meat or a bone, as has been 
said. And if it is anything eatable, he says to the sick man, "Take 
notice! You have eaten something which has brought on this illness 
which you suffer from. See how I have taken out of your body what 
your cemi had put in your body because you did not say your prayers 
to him or did not build him some temple or give him something from 
your possessions." And if it is a stone he says, "keep it safe." And 
sometimes they are convinced that these stones are good, and that 
they help women in labor, and they keep it very carefully wrapped in 
cotton in little baskets and give them to eat what they eat themselves, 
and they do the same to the cemis which they have in their cabins. 
Upon solemn days when they bring out much to eat either fish, meat, or 
bread or anything else, they put everything in the cabin of the cemis 
that the idol may eat of it. 

The next day they take all this food to their own cabins after the 
cemi has eaten. And so may God help them if the cemi eats of that; 
or of anything else, the said cemi being a dead thing made of stone or 
wood. 



♦Bachiller y Morales thinks the word a textual error for the form cogioba used above, 
ch. xi, yet see below ch. xvii where it is described and another name Zachon is men- 
tioned. 



22 



CHAPTER XVII. 
How sometimes these physicians are deceived. 

When they have done what has been described and still the sick man 
dies, if the dead man has many relatives or was lord of a village (castella) 
and can resist the said Buhuitihu (Bohuti) which means physician, 
(because those who have little power do not venture to contend with 
these physicians) he who wishes to do harm to him does this. Wanting 
to know if the sick man died through the fault of the physician or whether 
he did not do what was prescribed, they take an herb called gueio which 
has leaves like basil, thick and broad (and it is called also another name 
Zachon.) They take the juice of this leaf and cut the nails of the dead 
man and cut off the hair on his forehead, and they make powder (of 
them) between two stones, which they mix with the juice of the afore- 
said herb, and they pour it into the dead man's mouth or his nose and 
so doing they ask the dead man if the physician was the cause of his 
death, and if he had followed the regimen (or diet). And they ask him 
this several times until he speaks as plainly as if he were alive, so that 
he answers all that they ask of him, saying that the Buhuitihu (Bohuti) 
did not follow the regimen, or was the cause of his death that time. 
And they say the physician asks him if he is alive or how it is that he 
speaks so plainly; and he answers that he is dead. And when they 
have learned what they want, they return him to his grave from which 
they took him to learn from him what we have described. They also 
proceed in another way to learn what they want. They take the dead 
man and build a big fire, like that with which a charcoal-burner makes 
charcoal, and when the wood is become live coals they place the body 
into this great fiery mass and then cover it with earth as the charcoal- 
burner covers charcoal and here they let it lie as long as they please. And 
as it lies there they ask him questions as has already been said of the 
other method. And he replies that he knows nothing and they ask 
him this ten times and then he speaks no more. They ask him if he is 
dead; but he does not speak more than these ten times. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

How the relatives of the dead man take vengeance when 
they have received an answer by means of the drench. 

The relatives of the dead man get together some day and wait for the 
Buhuitihu (Bohuti) and beat him with clubs till they break his legs, 
his arms and his head so that they fairly bray him as in a mortar, and 
they leave him in that condition believing that they have killed him. 
And they say that by night there come many snakes of different kinds 
which lick the face and the whole body of this physician who has been 



23 



left for dead as we said and who remains so for two or three days. And 
while he stays there in that condition they say that the bones of his 
legs and arms unite and knit together and he gets up and walks leisurely 
in the direction of his cabin. And those that see him ask him saying: 
"Were you not dead?" and he answers that the cemis came to his assist- 
ance in the form of snakes. And the relatives of the dead man, greatly 
enraged, because they thought they had avenged the death of their 
relative, seeing him alive grow desperate and try to lay hands on him 
to put him to death; and if they get hold of him again they gouge out 
his eyes and crush his testicles, because they say that none of these 
can die no matter how much he is beaten if they do not take away his 
testicles. 

How they learn what they want from him they burn and 
how they take vengeance. 

When they uncover the fire the smoke that comes from it rises till 
they lose sight of it, and it gives forth a shrill cry as it comes from the 
furnace, then turns down and enters the cabin of the Buhuitihu, (Bohuti) 
or physician, and that very moment he falls sick if he did not follow the 
diet (or regimen) and he is covered with sores and his whole body peels, 
and thus they have a sign that such a one did not observe the diet and 
that therefore the sick man died. Wherefore they try to kill him as has 
been described in the case of the other. 

These then are the spells which they are wont to use. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

How they make and keep cemis of wood and stone. 

Those of stone (wood?) are made in this fashion. When someone is 
going along on a journey he says he sees a tree which is moving its roots; 
and the man in a great fright stops and asks: "Who is it?" And he replies 
"My name is Buhuitihu,* and he will tell you who I am." And the man 
goes to the physician and tells him what he has seen; and the enchanter 
or wizard runs immediately to see the tree which the man has told him 
of and sits down by it, and he makes cogioba as we have described above in 
the story of the four.f And when the cogioba is made he stands up on 
his feet and gives it all its titles as if it were some great lord, and he 
asks it: "Tell me who you are and what you are doing here and what 
you want of me and why you have had me called. Tell me if you want 
me to cut you or if you want to come with me, and how you want me to 
carry you, and I will build you a cabin and add a property to it." Then 



♦The text is erroneous. It should be "Call the Bohuti" as appears from Las 
Casas's quotation of the same passage Docs. Ined. LXVI, 436. 

tSee above ch. xi. Las Casas describes in detail the process of "making cohoba" 
which he says he had seen many times. Docs. lndd. LXVI, 469-71. 



24 



that tree or cemi becomes an idol or devil, replies to him telling him the 
shape in which it wants to be made. And he cuts and makes it in the 
shape it has directed; builds its house for it, and gives the property 
and many times in the year makes cogioba for it. This cogioba is to pray 
to it and to please it and to ask and to learn some things from the cemi, 
either evil or good, and in addition to ask it for wealth. And when 
they want to know if they will be victorious over their enemies they 
go into a cabin into which no one else goes except the principal men; 
and their chief is the first who begins to make cogioba, and to make a 
noise; and while he is making cogioba, no one of them who is in the 
company says anything till the chief has finished; but when he has 
finished his prayer, he stands a while with his head turned (down) and 
his arms on his knees; then he lifts his head up and looks toward the 
sky and speaks. Then they all answer him with a loud voice, and when 
they have all spoken giving thanks, he tells the vision that he has seen 
intoxicated with the cogioba which he has inhaled through his nose, 
which goes up into his head. And he says that he has talked with the 
cemi and that they are to have a victory; or that his enemies will fly; 
or that there shall be a great loss of life, or wars or famine or some other 
such things which occur to him who is intoxicated to say. Consider 
what a state their brains are in, because they say the cabins seem to them 
to be turned upside down and that men are walking with their feet in 
the air. 

And this cogioba they make for cemis of stone and of wood as well 
as for the dead as we have described above. 

The stone cemis are of several kinds. There are some which they 
say the physicians draw from the body and the sick believe these are 
the best to help women with child to be delivered. There are others 
that speak which are shaped like a large turnip with the leaves spread 
on and as long as caper bushes. These leaves generally are shaped 
like an elm leaf; others have three points, and they believe that they 
make the Giuca (Yucca?) to grow. Their roots are like a radish. The 
leaf of the giutola for the most part has six or seven points. I do not 
know with what to compare it because I have never seen anything like 
it in Spain or in other countries. The stalk of the giuca is as tall as a 
man. Let us now speak of their belief relating to the idols and cemis 
and of their great delusions derived from them. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Of the Cemi, Bugia and Aiba,* of which they relate that when there 
were wars he was burnt by them and then washing him with the juice 
of the giuca his arms grew again and his eyes were made anew and his 
body grew again. 

The giuca was small and with water and with juice as mentioned above 
they washed it in order that it should become big. And they say that 



♦Alternate names of Baidrama mentioned just below. 



25 



it made those ill who had made this cemi because they did not bring it 
giuca to eat. This cemi was named Baidrama;* and when some one 
was sick they called the Buhuitihu (Bohuti) and asked him whence 
came this illness; and he replied that Baidrama had sent it because 
they had not sent him (something) to eat by those who had charge of 
his cabin. This the Buhuitihu (Bohuti) said the cemi Baidrama had 
told him. 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Of the cemi of Guamorete. 

They say that when they built the house of Guamorete who was 
a principal man, they put there a cemi that he had on top of his house. 
This cemi was called Corocote; and once when they had wars, the enemies 
of Guamorete burned the house where this cemi Corocote was. At 
that time they relate that he rose up and went away a cross-bowshot 
from that place to near a water. And they say that when he was above 
the house by night he came down and lay with the women, and that 
then Guamorete died, and that this cemi came into the hands of another 
cacique and that he continued to lie with the women. And they say, 
besides, that two crowns grew on his head. Wherefore they said: (of 
some one) "Since he has two crowns, certainly he is the son of Corocote. " 
This they believed very positively. This cemi came into the possession 
later of another cacique named Guatabanex and his place was named 
Giacaba. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Of another cemi whose name was Opigielguoiran,f and a principal 
man had him whose name was Cauauaniouaua,and he had many subjects. 

This cemi Opigielguouiran, they say, had four feet like a dog's, and 
he was of wood, and that oftentimes by night he went out of the house 
into the woods whither they went to seek him, and when he was brought 
back to the house they bound him with cords; but he went away again 
to the woods. 

And when the Christians came to this island of Espanola they say 
that he broke away and went into a swamp and that they followed 
his tracks but never saw him nor do they [know ^anything about him. 
I deliver this just as I received it. 



*Las Casas, LXVI, 471, gives this name as Vaybrama. His version of the story 
is clearer than the Italian text of Ramon Pane. 

fEpileguanita in Peter Martyr. Accepted by Bachiller y Morales as undoubtedly 
the proper form, the name in the text being obviously corrupted. 



26 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
Of another cemi called Guabancex. 

This cemi Guabancex was in the country of a great cacique, one of 
the chief ones, named Aumatex. This cemi is a woman and they 
say there are two others in her company. One is a crier, the other 
the gatherer or governor of the waters. And when Guabancex is angry, 
they say, that she raises the wind and brings rain, and throws down 
houses and shakes the trees. This cemi they say is a woman and was 
made of stone of that country. The other two cemis that are with her 
are named, the one Guatauua, and is a crier or proclaimer and by order 
of Guabancex makes proclamation that all the other cemis of that 
province shall help raise a high wind and bring a heavy rain. The other 
is named Coatrischie who, they relate, gathers the water into the valleys 
between the mountains and then lets them loose to destroy the country 
This they are positive about. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Of what they believe about another cemi named Faraguuaol.* This 
cemi belongs to a principal cacique in the island of Espafiola, and is an 
idol, and they ascribe to him several names and he was found as you 
will now hear. 

They say that one day in the past before the island was discovered 
they know not how long ago, when going hunting they found a certain 
animal and they ran after it and it broke away into a ditch. And 
looking for it they saw a beam which seems alive. Thereupon the 
hunter, seeing it, ran to his lord who was a cicique and the father of 
Guaraionel and told him what he had seen. They went there and foimd 
the thing as the hunter had said. And they took the log and built a 
house for it. And they say that it went out of the house several times 
and went to the place whence they had brought it, not exactly to the 
same place but near there; because the lord just mentioned or his son 
Guaraionel sent out to seek it they found it hidden; and that another 
time they bound it and put it in a sack, and notwithstanding it was 
bound in this way it went off as before. And this (story) this ignorant 
people accept as a positive certainty. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Of the things which they say were uttered by two of the leading 
caciques of the island of Espafiola; the one named Cazziuaquel, father 
of the above-mentioned Guarionel; the other Gamanacoel. 



*Bachiller y Morales thinks this name should be written Taragabaol. 



27 



And (to) that great lord who they say is in heaven, as in the beginning 
of the book is written, (they say of) this Caizzihu,* that he there made 
a fast which all of them keep together, for they are shut up six or seven 
days without eating anything except the juice of herbs with which 
they also wash themselves. After this time is finished, they begin to 
eat something which gives them nourishment. And in the time that 
they have been without food through the weakness which they feel in 
the body and in the head they say they have seen something perhaps 
desired by them, for they all keep this fast in honor of the cemi that 
they have in order to know if they will obtain a victory over their ene- 
mies or to acquire wealth or for anything else they desire. And they 
say that this cacique affirmed that he had spoken with Giocauuaghamat 
who had told him that whoever remained alive after his death should 
enjoy the rule over them only a short time, because they would see 
in their country a people clothed which was to rule them and to slay 
them and that they would die of hunger. At first they thought these 
would be the Canibales;J but reflecting that they only plundered and 
fled they believed that it must be another people that the cemi spoke 
of. Wherefore they now believe that it was the Admiral and the people 
he brought with him. § Now I want to tell what I have seen and what 
took place, when I and the other friars went to Castile and I, Friar 
Ramon a poor hermit stayed behind || and went off to the Magdalena to 
a fort which Don Christopher Columbus, Admiral, viceroy and governor 
of the islands and of the main land of the Indies by command of King 
Don Ferdinand and of the Queen Donna Isabella. I being in that fort 
with Artiaga (Arriaga) appointed captain of it by order of the aforesaid 
viceroy Don Christopher Columbus it pleased God to enlighten with the 
light of the Holy Catholic Faith a whole household of the principal 
people of that province of Magdalena. This province was called Maro- 
risll and the lord of it was called Guauauoconel, which means son of 
Guauaenechin. In the aforesaid house were his servants and favorites 
who had for a surname Giahuuauariu. They were in all sixteen persons 
all relatives, and among them five brothers. Of these one died, and the 
other four received the water of holy baptism. And I believe that 
they died martyrs, for so it appeared in their death and in their constancy. 
The first who received the death or the water of holy baptism was an 
Indian called Guaticaua** who then received the name of John. This 

*This sentence is apparently corrupt. The conjectural insertions are based on 
Las Casas's epitome of the same story. Docs. Ined. LXVI, 473. I take Caizziuaquel 
and Caizzihu to be the same. 

fYocahuguama in Las Casas, op. tit. 475. 

f'That people whom we now call Caribes but whom they then and we called Cani- 
bales" Las Casas op. cit. 475. The words are etymologically the same. 

§A very interesting legend of a prophecy of a clothed conquering race. Possibly 
the attribute of clothing may have been based on rumors of the Mayas or the Aztecs. 

||The text is confused. Probably it means simply at the time when the other 
friars went to Castile. 

ITMasorix. Las Casas, Docs. Indd. LXVI, 436. 

**Guaicauanu is the form given a page below. 



28 



was the first Christian who suffered a cruel death; and surely it seems 
to me that he died the death of a martyr. For I have heard from some 
who were present at his death that he said Dio Aboriadacha, Dio Aboria- 
dacha,* which is to say: "I am a servant of God." And in like manner 
died his brother Antony and with him another saying the same thing. 
All those of this household and people attended me to do whatever I 
pleased. Those that were left alive and are living to-day are Christians 
through the means of Don Christopher Columbus, viceroy and governor 
of the Indies; and now the Christians are many more in number through 
the grace of God. 

Let us now relate what befel us in the island (province) of Magdalena. 
When I was there in Magdalena the said Lord Admiral came to the assist- 
ance of Arriaga and some Christians who were besieged by enemies, 
the subjects of a principal cacique named Caouabo (Caonabo). The 
Lord Admiral told me that the language of the province Magdalena 
Maroris (Macorix) was different from the other, and that the speech 
there was not understood throughout the land, and that therefore I 
should go and reside with another principal Cacique named Guarionex, 
lord of a numerous people whose language was understood everywhere 
in the land. So by his command I went to reside with the said Guarionex. 
It is true, that I said to the lord governor Don Christopher Columbus: 
"My lord, why does your lordship wish me to go and live with Guarionex 
when I know no language besides that of Maroris? (Magorix) Let 
your lordship permit that some one of these people of Nuhuirci, who 
then were Christians and knew both languages, go with me." This 
he granted me and told me to take whomever I pleased. And God in 
his goodness gave me for a companion the best of the Indians and the 
one most experienced in the Christian faith. Later he took him from 
me. God be praised who gave him and took him away, whom I truly 
regarded as a good son and a brother. And he was that Guaicauanu 
who afterwards was a Christian and was called John. 

Of what befell us there I, the poor hermit, shall not relate anything, 
nor how we set forth Guaicauanu and I and went to Isabella and waited 
for the Admiral till he returned from the relief of Magdalena. As soon 
as he arrived we we nt where the lord governor had ordered us in company 
with one Juan de Agiada (Aguada) who had charge of a fort which the 
said governor Don Christopher Columbus had built, half a league from 
the place where we were to live. And the aforesaid lord Admiral com- 
manded the said Juan di Agiada (Aguada) that he should give us to eat 
from the store that was in the fort. This fort was called Conception. 
We then were with that cacique Guarionex almost two years giving 
him instruction all the time in our holy faith and the customs of Chris- 
tians. In the beginning he showed a good will and gave us hopes that 
he would do everything we wished and of desiring to be a Christian f 
asking us to teach him the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria and the Creed 



♦This phrase one the very few extant belonging to the Taino or Haytian language 
is given by Las Casas as "Dios naboria daca." op. cit. 475. 



29 



and all the other prayers which pertain to the Christian. And thus 
he learned the Lord's Prayer and the Ave Maria, and the Creed. And 
many of his household learned the same. And every morning he said his 
prayers and he made his household say them twice a day. But later 
he became offended and gave up that good plan through the fault of 
some other principal men of that country, who blamed him because he 
was willing to give heed to the Christian law, since the Christians were 
bad men and got possession of their lands by force. Therefore they 
advised him to care no more for anything belonging to the Christians, 
but that they should agree and conspire together to slay them, because 
they could not satisfy them and were resolved not to try in any fashion 
to follow their ways. For this reason he broke off from his good intention, 
and we, seeing that he had broken away and left what we had taught 
him, resolved to depart thence and go where we might be more successful 
in teaching the Indians and instructing them in the matters of our faith. 
And so we went to another principal cacique who showed us good will 
saying that he wished to be a Christian. This cacique was called Mauiatue . 
Accordingly, we set out to go to the said Mauiatue's country: I Friar 
Ramon Pane, a poor hermit, and Friar Juan Borgognone of the order 
of St. Francis and John Matthew the first that received the water of Holy 
Baptism in the island of Espanola. 

On the second day after we departed from the village and habitation 
of Guarionex to go to the other cacique named Mauiatue the people 
of Guarionex built a house near the house of prayer in which we left 
some images before which the catechumens were to kneel and pray and 
to console themselves. And they were the mother, and brothers and the 
relatives of the aforesaid John Matthew, the first Christian. Later 
seven others joined them and then all of that family became Christians 
and persevered in their good intentions, according to our faith; so that 
all that family remained as the guardians of that house of prayer and 
some lands that I had had tilled. 

Now these being left to guard this house the second day after we had 
gone to the aforesaid Mauiatue, six men went into the house of prayer 
which the aforesaid catechumens who were seven in number had charge 
of, and by order of Guarionex told them that they should take those 
images which Friar Ramon had left in the custody of the catechumens, 
and rend them and break them in pieces, since Friar Ramon and his 
companions had gone and they would not know who did it. Therefore 
these six servants of Guarionex went there and found six boys watching 
over this house of prayer fearing what happened later; and the boys 
thus instructed said they were unwilling they should come in, but they 
forced their way in and took the images and carried them off. 



30 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

What became of the images and the miracle God wrought 
to show his power. 

When they came out of the house of prayer, they threw the images 
down on the ground and covered them with dirt and then made 
water upon them saying: "Now your fruits will be good and great." 
And this because they buried them in a tilled field saying that the fruit 
would be good which was planted there, and this all in mockery. And 
when the boys saw this that had charge of the house of prayer by com- 
mand of the catechumens they ran to their elders who were on their 
lands and told them, that the men of Guarionex had torn the images 
to tatters and mocked them. And when they understood the matter 
from them they left their work and ran crying out to give an account 
of it to Don Bartholomew Columbus who was then governor in place of the 
Admiral his brother, who had gone to Castile. He as lieutenant of the 
viceroy and governor of the islands had the offenders tried and the truth 
being made known he had them publicly burnt. All this did not deter 
Guarionex and his subjects from the evil design they had of slaying 
the Christians on the day appointed for bringing in the tribute which 
they payed.* But their conspiracy was discovered, and thus they 
were taken on the same day on which they were going to carry it into 
effect. Still they persisted in their plan and putting it into operation, 
they killed four men and John Matthew chief clerk and Anthony his 
brother who had received Holy Baptism. And they ran to where they 
had hidden the images and tore them in pieces. Some days later the 
owner of that field went to dig agis which are roots like turnips and some 
like radishes. And in the place where the images had been buried 
two or three agis had grown one through the middle of the other in the 
form of a cross. Nor was it possible for any man to find this cross, but 
the mother of Guarionex found it who was the worst woman I knew 
in those parts. She thought this a great miracle and said to the com- 
mander of the fort Conception, "This miracle has been shown by God 
where the images were found. God knows why." 

Let us now relate how the first Christians were converted who received 
Holy Baptism and how much it is necessary to do to make all Christians. 
And truly the island has great need of people to punish the chiefs when 
they will not suffer their people to hear the things of the Holy Catholic 
Faith, and to be taught in it, because they are not able and do not 
know how to speak against it. I can affirm this with truth because it 
has cost me much labor to know it and I am certain that it will be clear 
from what we have said of this to point. A word to the wise is enough. 

The first Christians then in the island of Espanola were those of whom 
we have spoken above, i. e. Gianauuariu in whose family there were 



*Cf. Las Casas, Historia de las Indias II, 144-5. 



31 



seventeen persons who all became Christians, as soon as they understood 
that there is one God who has made all things and created heaven and 
earth, without any further arguments or controversy because they 
easily believe. But with others both force and intelligence must be used, 
because they are not all alike. Because if these had a good beginning 
and a better end there will be others who will begin well and then will 
laugh at what has been taught them. For such force and punishment 
are necessary. 

The first that received Holy Baptism in the island of Espafiola was 
John Matthew who was baptized on the day of St. Matthew the Evan- 
gelist (September 21) in the year 1496, and later all his family; where 
there have been many Christians and there would be more if there had 
been someone to teach them and to instruct them in the Holy Catholic 
Faith and people to hold them in check. 

And if any one should ask why I make this so easy a matter I say 
it is because I have seen the experiment tried especially in the case of 
a principal cacique Mahuuiatiuire who has continued now for three 
years in his good purpose saying that he will be a Christian and have 
but one wife because they used to have two or three and the principal 
ones ten, fifteen or twenty. 

This is what I have been able to understand and to learn as to the cus- 
toms and ceremonies of the Indians of Espafiola, with all the pains I 
have taken wherein I expect no spiritual or temporal advantage. 

May it please our Lord if this is useful to his government and service 
to give me his grace to persevere; and if it must fall out otherwise, may 
he take away my understanding. 

The end of the work of the poor hermit Ramon Pane.* 



AN EPITOME OF THE TREATISE OF FRIAR RAMON 
INSERTED BY PETER MARTYR IN HIS 
BE REBUS OCEANICIS ET NOVO ORBE. 

DECADE I. LIB. IX. 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

The translation is that of Richard Eden, as revised by Michael Lok, 
and published in Hakluyt's Voyages, London ed. 1812. Vol. v. 209ff. 
I have compared the translation with the original, restoring some 
slight omissions and correcting some errors. E. G. B. 

Our men therefore were long in the Hand of Hispaniola, 
before they knew that the people thereof honoured any- 
other thing then the lightes of heauen, or hadde any other 



*Historie. Ed. 1571, folios 126-145. 



32 



religion : but when they hadde beene longe conuersaunt with 
them, and by vnderstanding their language, drew to a further 
familiaritie, they had knowledge that they vsed diuers rites 
and superstitions: I haue therefore gathered these fewe 
thinges following, omitting the more trifling matter, out of a 
booke written by one Ramonus [Ramon] an Heremite, whome 
Colonus [Columbus] hadde left with certayne kinges of the 
Ilande to instruct them in the Christian faith. And tarry- 
ing there a long time he composed a small book in the 
Spanish tongue on the rites of the island. And because in 
manner their whole religion is none other thing then idola- 
trie, I will beegin at their idolles. It is therefore apparant 
by the images which they honour openly and commonly f 
that there appeare vnto them in the night seasons, certayne 
phantasies and illusions of euil spirites, seducing them into 
many fonde and foolish errours for they make certaine 
images of Gossampine cotton, folded or wreathed after 
their manner, and hard stopped within. These images 
they make sitting, muche like vnto the pictures of spirits 
and deuilles which our paynters are accustomed to paynt 
vpon walles: but forasmuch as I my selfe sent you foure 
of these Images, you may better presently signifie vnto 
the king vour vncle, what manner of things they are, and 
howe like vnto paynted deuilles, than I can expresse the 
same by writing. These images, the inhabitauntes call 
Zemes, whereof the leaste, made to the likenesse of young 
deuilles, they binde to their foreheades when they goe to 
the warres against their enemies, and for that purpose haue 
they those strings hanging at them which you see. Of 
these, they beleeue to obteyne rayne, if raine bee lacking, 
likewise fayre weather if they are in need of sunshine: for 
they think that these Zemes are the mediatours and messen- 
gers of the great God, whom they acknowledge to be onely 
one, eternall, without end, omnipotent, and inuisible. Thus 
euery king hath his particular Zeme, which he honoureth. 
They call the eternall God by these two names, Iocauna, 



38 



Guamaonocon, as their predecessoures taught them, affirm- 
ing that hee hath a mother called by these flue names: 
that is, Attabeira, Mamona, Guacarapita, Iiella, Guimazoa. 
Nowe shall you heare what they fable on the earth as touch- 
ing the originall of man. There is in the lande, a region 
called Caunana, where they faine that mankinde came first 
out of two caues of a mountaine : and that the biggest sorte 
of men came forth of the mouth of the biggest caue, and 
the least sort out of the least caue. The rocke in the which 
these caues are, they call Cauta. The greatest denne, 
they name Cazibaxagua, and the lesse Amaiauna. They say, 
that before it was lawful for men to come foorth of the 
caue, the mouth of the caue was kept and watched nightly 
by a man whose name was Machochael: this Machochael, 
departing somewhat farre from the caue, to the intent to 
see what things were abroad, was sodenly taken of the 
sunne, (whose sight he was forbidden) and was turned 
into a stone. They fayne the like of diuers others, that 
whereas they went forth in the night season a fishing so 
farre from the caue, that they could not returne before the 
rising of the sunne (the which it was not lawfull for them 
to behold) they were transformed into Myrobalane trees, 
which of themselves grow plentifully in the Hand. They 
said furthermore, that a certayne ruler called Vaguoniona, 
sent one foorth of the caue to goe a fishing, who by like 
chance was turned into a Nightingale, because the sunne 
was risen beef ore hee came agayne to the caue: and that 
yeerely about the same time that he was turned into 
a bird,* he doth in the night with a mourning song 
bewayle his misfortune, and call for the helpe of his 
maister Vaguoniona : And this they thinke to bee the cause 
why that bird singe th in the night season. But Vaguon- 
iona, being sore troubled in his mind for the losse of his 
familiar friend whom he loued so entirely, leauing the men 
in the caue, brought forth only the women with their suck- 



*By a curious error Lok has "bridge" instead of "bird", 



i 



84 

ing children; and leauing the women in one of the Ilandes 
of that tract, called Mathinino, he caryed the children 
away with him; which poor wretches oppressed with famine, 
faynted and remayned on the banke of a certaine ryuer, 
where they were turned into frogges and cryed toa, toa, 
that is mamma, mamma, as children are woont to cry, for 
the mothers pape. And heereof they say it commeth that 
frogges vse to cry so pitifully in the springtime of the yeare : 
And that men were scattered abroade in the caues of 
Hispaniola without the companie of women. They say 
also, that Vaguoniona himself being accustomed to wander 
in diuers places, and yet by a speciall grace neuer trans- 
formed once, descended to a certayne faire woman, whom 
he sawe in the bottome of the sea, and receiued of her 
certayne pibble stones of marble (which they called Cibas) 
and also certayne yellowe and bright plates of lattin which 
they call Guaninos. These necklaces to this day are had 
in great estimation among the kinges, as goodly jewelles 
and most holy reliques. 

These* men which we said before were left in the caves 
without women, went forth in the night (as they say) to 
wash themselves in a pond of rain water and saw a far off 
by the way a great multitude of certain beasts in shape 
somewhat like unto women, creeping as thick as ants about 
the myrobalane trees; And that as they attempted to 
take these beasts, they slipped out of their hands as they 
had been eels. Whereupon they consulted, and determined 
by the advice of the elders, that all such should be sought forth 
among them, as were scabbed and leprous, to the intent 
that with their rough and hard hands, they might the easier 
take hold of them. These men, they call Caracaracoles: 
And sent them forth a hunting to take their beasts. But 
of many which they took, they could keep but only four: 
and when they would have used them for women, they found 



*The two legends that follow of the making of women and of the making of the 
sea were omitted by Lok although translated by Eden. Eden's version modernized 
has been inserted here. 



35 



that they lacked woman's priuities. Wherefore calling the 
elders again to counsel to consult what were best to be done in 
this case, their advice was that the bird which we call the 
Pye, should be admitted with his bill to open a place for 
that purpose, while in the meantime these men called 
Caracaracoles, should hold fast the women's thighs abroad 
with their rough hands. Full wisely therefore was the pye 
put to this office, and opened the women's priuities, and 
hereof the women of the Island have their origin and off- 
spring. But now do I cease to marvel that the old Greeks 
did fable and write so many books of the people called 
Myrmidones, which they said to be engendered of ants or 
pismires. These and such like, the sagest and wisest of 
the people, preach continually to the simple sort, and 
rehearse the same as most holy oracles. But it is yet more 
childish [rather, more sober] that they fable as touching the 
original of the sea. For they say that there was once in 
the Island, a man of great power, whose name was lata; 
whose only son being dead, he buried him within a great 
gourd. This lata, grievously taking the death of his son, 
after a few months, came again to the gourd: The which 
when he had opened, there issued forth many great whales 
and other monsters of the sea: whereupon he declared to 
such as dwelt about him, that the sea was enclosed in that 
gourd. By which report, four brethren (borne of one woman 
who died in her travail) being moved, came to the gourd in 
hope to have many fishes. The which when they had 
taken in their hands, and espied lata coming, (who often- 
times resorted to the gourd to visit the bones of his son) 
fearing lest he should suspect them of theft and sacrilege, 
suddenly let the gourd fall out of their hands : which being 
broken in the fall the sea forthwith broke out at the rifts 
thereof, and so filled the vales, and overflowed the plains, 
that only the mountains were uncovered, which now contain 
the islands which are seen in those coasts. And this is the 
opinion of these wise men as concerning the origin of the sea. 



36 



But nowe (most noble prince) you shall heare a more 
pleasaunt fable. There is a certayne caue called Iouana- 
boina, in the territorie of a certayne king whose name is 
Machinnech: This caue they honour more religiously then 
did the Greekes in time paste, Corinth, Cyrrha, or Nysa, 
and haue adourned it with pictures of a thousand fashions. 
In the intrance of this caue they haue two grauen Zemes, 
whereof the one is called Binthaitel, and the other Mar oh u. 
Being demanded why they had this caue in so great reuerence 
they answered earnestly, because the sunne and the moone 
came first out of the same to giue light to the world: they 
haue religious concourse to these caues, as we are accustomed 
to goe on Pylgrimage to Rome, or Vaticane, Compostella, 
or the Lords Sepulchre, Hierusalem, as most holy & head 
places of our religion. They are also subject to another 
kind of superstition: for they thinke that dead folks walke 
in the night, and eate the fruite called Guannaba, vnknowne 
vnto vs, & somewhat like vnto a Quinse: affirming also 
that they are couersant with liuing people: euen in their 
beddes, and to deceiue women in taking vpon them the 
shape of men, shewing themselves as though they would 
haue to doe with them: but when the matter commeth to 
actuall deed, sodainly they vanishe away. If any do suspect 
that a dead body lyeth by him, when he feeleth any strange 
thing in the bed, they say he shall bee out of doubt by feeling 
of the bellie thereof; affirming that the spirites of dead men 
may take vppon them all the members of mans body, sauing 
onely the nauel. If therefore by the lacke of the nauel he 
doe perceiue that a dead body lyeth by him, the feeling 
(contact) is immediately resolued. (relaxed) They beleeue 
verily, that in the night, and oftentimes in ther iourneies, 
and especially in common and high wayes, dead men doe 
meete with the liuing: Against whom, if any man bee 
stout and out of feare, the fantasie vanisheth incontinently : 
but if anie feare, the fantasie or vision dooth so assaulte 
him and strike him with further feare, that many are thereby 



37. 



astonyshed, and haue the lymmes of their bodies taken. 
(Rather, are completely unnerved). The inhabitauntes 
beeing demanded of whom they had those vaine superstitions 
they aunswered, that they were left them of their forefathers, 
as by descent of inheritance, and that they haue had the 
same before the memorie of man, composed in certaine 
rimes and songes, which it was lawfull for none to learne, 
but onely the kinges sonnes, who committed the same to 
memory e because they had neuer any knowledge of letters. 
These they sing before the people on certaine solemne 
and festiuall dayes as most religious ceremonies: while in 
the meane time they play on a certaine instrument made of 
one whole peece of wood somewhat holowe like a timbrel. 
Their priestes and diuines (whom they call Boitii) instructe 
them in these superstitions: These priestes are also phisi- 
tions, deuising a thousand craftes and subtilties howe to 
deceiue the simple people which haue them in great reuerence 
for they perswade them that the Zemes vse to speak with 
them familiarly, and tel them of things to come. And if 
any haue ben sicke, and are recouered they make and beleeue 
that they obteined their health of the Zemes. These 
Boitii bind themselves to much fasting, and outward clean- 
linesse, and purginges, especially when they take vpon them 
the cure of any prince, for then they drinke the powder of a 
certaine herbe by whose qualitie they are driuen into a fury, 
at which time (as they say) they learne many thinges by 
reuelation of the Zemes. Then putting secretely in their 
mouthes, eyther a stone, or a bone, or a peece of flesh, they 
come to the sick person commaunding al to depart out of 
that place except one or two whom it shall please the sicke 
man to appoynt: this done, they goe about him three or 
foure times, greatly deforming their faces, lipps, and nos- 
thrils with sundry filthy gestures, blowing, breathing, and 
sucking the forehead, temples, and necke of the patient, 
whereby (they say) they drawe the euil ayre from him, and 
sucke the disease out of the vaynes; then rubbing him, 



88 



about the shoulders, thighes and legges, and drawing downe 
their handes close by his feete, holding them yet faste 
togeather, they runne to the doore being open, where they 
vnclose and shake their hands, affirming that they haue 
driuen away the disease, and that the patient shall shortly 
be perfectly restored to health. After this comming be- 
hinde him, hee conueigheth a peece of fleshe out of his owne 
mouth like a iuggeler, and sheweth it to the sicke man, 
saying /'Behold, you haue eaten to much, you shall nowe 
bee whole, because I haue taken this from you." But if he 
entend yet further to deceiue the patient, hee perswadeth 
him that his Zeme is angry, eyther because he hath not 
builded him a chappell, or not honoured him religiously, 
or not dedicated vnto him a groue or garden. And if it so 
chaunce that the sicke person die, his kinsfolks, by witch- 
crafte, enforce the dead to confesse whether he died by 
naturall destiny, or by the negligence of the Boitius, in 
that he had not fasted as he should haue done, or not minis- 
tred a conuenient medicine for the disease: so that if this 
phisition be found faultie, they take reuenge of him. Of 
these stones or bones which these Boitii cary in their mouthes, 
if the women can come by them, they keepe them religiously, 
beleeuing them to be greatly effectuall to helpe women 
traueling with childe, and therefore honour them as they do 
their Zemes. For diuers of the inhabitantes honour Zemes 
of diuers fashions: some make them of wood, as they were 
admonished by certaine visions appearing vnto them in 
the woods: Other, which haue receiued aunswer of them 
among the rockes, make them of stone and marble. Some 
they make of rootes, to the similitude of such as appeare to 
them when they are gathering the rootes called Ages, 
whereof they make their bread, as we haue said before. 
These Zemes they beleue to send plentie & fruitfulnes 
of those rootes, as the antiquitie beleued such fayries or 
spirits as they called Dryades, Hamadryades, Satyros, 
Panes, and Nereides, to haue the cure & prouidence of 



39 



the sea, woods, springes, and fountaines, assigning to euery 
thing their peculiar goddes; Euen so doe the inhabitants of 
this Hand attribute a Zeme to euery thing, supposing the 
same to giue eare to their inuocations. Wherefore, as 
often as the kings aske counsell of their Zemes as concern- 
ing their warres, increase of fruites or scarcenes, or health 
& sickness, they enter into the house dedicate to their 
Zemes, where, snuffing vp into their nosthryles the pouder 
of the herbe called Cohobba* (wherewith the Boitii are dry- 
uen into a furie) they say that immediately they see the 
houses turned topsie turuie, and men to walke with their 
heeles vpward, of such force is this pouder, vtterly to take 
away al sence. As soone as this madnesse ceasseth, he 
embraceth his knees with his armes, holding downe his 
head. And when he hath remayned thus awhile astony- 
shed, hee lifteth vp his head, as one that came newe out of 
sleepe : and thus lookin vp toward heauen, first he fumbleth 
certaine confounded wordes with himselfe, then certayne 
of the nobilitie or chief e gentlemen that are about him (for 
none of the common people are admitted to these mysteries) 
with loude voyces giue tokens of reioicing that hee is returned 
to them from the speech of the Zemes, demanding of him 
what he hath seene. Then hee opening his mouth, doateth 
that the Zemes spake to him during the time of his trance, 
declaring that he had reuelations either concerning victorie 
or destruction, famine or plentie, health or sicknesse or 
whatsoeuer happeneth first on his tongue. Now (most 
noble T^pce) what neede you hereafter to marueyle of the 
spirite <' f Apollo so shaking his Sibylles with extreame 
furie : yo^l hadde thought that the superstitious antiquitie 
hadde perished. But nowe whereas I haue declared thus 
much of the Zemes in general, I thought it not good to let 
passe what is sayde of them in particular. They say there- 
fore that a certaine king called Guamaretus, had a Zeme 
whose name was Corochutus, who (they say) was oftentimes 



♦Tobacco. 



40 



wont to descend from the highest place of the house where 
Guamaretus kept him close bound. They affirme that the 
cause of this his breaking of his bandes and departure, was 
eyther to hide himselfe, or to goe seeke for meate, or else 
for the acte of generation: and that sometimes beeing 
offended that the King Guamaretus had bin negligent and 
slacke in honouring him, he was wont to he hid for certaine 
dayes. They say also, that in the kinges village there are 
sometime children borne hauing two crownes, which they 
suppose to be the children of Corochotus the Zeme. They 
faine likewise, that Guamaretus being ouercome of his 
enemies in battayle, and his village with the palace consumed 
with fire, Corochotus brake his bandes, and was afterwarde 
founde a furlong of, safe and without hurte. He hath also 
another Zemes called Epileguanita, made of woode, in 
shape like a foure footed beast: who also is sayde often- 
times to haue gone from the palace where hee is honoured? 
into the woodes. As soone as they perceiue him to bee 
gone, a great multitude of them gather together to seeke 
him with deuout prayers: and when they haue founde him, 
bring him home religiously on their shoulders to the chappell 
dedicated vnto him. But they complaine, that since the 
comming of the Christian men into the Ilande, he fled for 
altogether, and coulde neuer since be founde, whereby they 
diuined the destruction of their country. They honoured 
another Zeme in the likenesse of a woman, on whom waited 
two other like men, as they were ministers to her. One of 
these, executed the office of a mediatour to the otK>Zeme, 
which are vnder the power and commaundemey^ of this 
woman, to raise wyndes, cloudes, and rayne. TK$ kher is 
also at her commaundement a messenger to the other Zemes, 
which are ioyned with her in gouernance, to gather together 
the waters which fall from the high hills to the valleies, 
that beeing loosed, they may with force burst out into great 
floudes, and ouer flowe the countrey, if the people do not 
giue due honour to her Image. The remaineth yet one thing 



41 



worthy to be noted, wherewith we will make an end of this 
booke. It is a thing well knowne, and yet freshe in memorie 
among the inhabitants of the Hand, that there was sometime 
two kings (of the which one was the father of Guarionex, 
of whom wee made mention before) whiche were woont to 
absteine hue daies together continually from meate & 
drinke, to know somewhat of their Zemes of thinges to come, 
and that for this fasting being acceptable to their Zemes, 
they receiued answere of them, that within few yeeres there 
shoulde come to the Hand a nation of men couered with 
apparell, which shoulde destroy all the customes and cere- 
monies of the Hand, and either slay all their children, or 
bring them into seruitude. The common sort of the people 
vnderstoode this oracle to be ment of the Canibales, & 
therefore when they had any knowledge of their comming, 
they euer fled, and were fully determined neuer more to 
aduenture the battayle with them. But when they sawe 
that the Spanyardes hadde entred into the Ilande, consult- 
ing among themselues of the matter, they concluded that 
this was the nation whiche was ment by the oracle. Wherein 
their opinion decerned them not, for they are nowe all subject 
to the Christians, all such being slayne as stubernely resisted : 
Nor yet remayneth there anie memorie of their Zemes, for 
they are all brought into Spayne, that wee might bee certy- 
fied of their illusions of euill spirits and Idolles, the which 
you your selfe (most noble Prince) haue seene and felt when 
I was present with you. 




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